Life Journeys from the North to the South...

Much to be Thankful for

Here are some scenes from the past months starting with the most recent! As Thanksgiving approaches, we are reminded of how much we truly have to be thankful to God for. How crazy that we ended up in Norway but yet how incredible the grace of God that brought us here. And how amazing that He has blessed us with so many wonderful friends from all over the world and families that love and support us- for those of you that are not with us- we miss you and will miss celebrating Thanksgiving with family, but you are all in our hearts! We are thankful for YOU- may you experience the fullness of God's love each and ever day as expressed so wonderfully through Jesus and know you are in our thoughts and prayers!

Yep, the snow has come! This is the street we live on. Probably around 3:30 in the afternoon when it is almost dark (right now- sunrise: 9:13, sunset: 2:54)

Our Discipleship Group Cabin Adventure
Before...

3 hrs. later after wading through waist-deep snow and realizing we aren't going to make it to the cabin...

sometimes you just have to swallow your pride and admit defeat- but we still had a great time spending the night at our friends' place and grilling outside the next day! The Norwegian wilderness can be beautiful but brutal!

What a great group of hard-core Norwegians ;)

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Friends Nicholas and Jessica Lusk who we know from Duluth and are doing YWAM's "Around the World" trip, decided to spend the end of their experience traveling to different missionaries they knew around Europe so spend a week with us in Trondheim. Was great to spend time getting to know them better and have welcomed company!

couldn't resist sharing this "jumping picture"- Hilarious!

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QUEST
Been getting some creative ideas from our freshmen students to engage people at the university campus. For example: How long can you hold a bottle of liquid to win a gift certificate and free house cleaning??? Students really had a good time with this one. We've had more help from students than ever before which has made a huge difference- especially having fluent Norwegian speakers! :)

Trying to have a Quest table every other week now to engage students in conversation by giving out free coffee and asking them what they think about certain life questions like, "If you could have one question answered in life what would it be?" or "What is happiness in your life?" This one resulted in two of the students helping us to have a great hour long discussion with some classmates about faith!

Our group of 9 meeting every Tuesday night (a miracle!) to eat dinner together, worship and pray, and discuss the Sermon on the Mount with The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. It has been so life-giving and a great example of Christian community seeking to live out the teachings of Jesus.

Fall Weekend Get-Away

Crazy Norwegians (and one Dutch)! :) There were 10 of us that had a really great time together seeking God. Thank you for your prayers! We tried some new things like different stations of worship combining elements of art, meditation on scripture, visuals, journaling, etc. This was a challenge but also an enlightening experience as we tried to make the weekend one of participation (instead of just "preaching") and learning how to combine intimacy with God into our everyday experiences and passions- something that is really a challenge for students here. Our prayer is that these young adults would experience freedom in their personal relationships with God and who they are created to be in a way that gives them an excitement and hunger to grow deeper in their faith.